Introducer sheaths are used in interventional procedures to percutaneously insert guide wires and/or catheters into blood vessels. These sheaths are frequently inserted percutaneously into the femoral artery at the groin in order to perform angioplasty or atherectomy of coronary arteries. After a coronary procedure, the sheath is left in place for at least several hours so that rapid treatment of a post-procedure complication can be readily accomplished. One frequent complication which occurs with this procedure is bleeding around the sheath where it penetrates through the arterial wall. Treatment occasionally requires replacing the sheath with another sheath having a larger outer diameter. This procedure requires a physician and is fairly involved and time consuming.
Another problem occurs when a sheath is inserted through a highly curved iliac artery. The iliac artery can be so tortuous that, even if the sheath does not kink, the sheath bends so sharply that the passage of a guiding or angioplasty catheter is precluded or at least made very difficult.